Oct. 2015 - Diversified We Stand, Divided We Fall

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ORIGINATION
LOCAL EDITION THE LATEST
Chase Eases Jumbo
Loan Requirements
CHASE'S ACTION FALLS IN LINE
WITH SIMILAR CHANGES AT
OTHER LARGE LENDERS.
NEW YORK //
Buyers will
now be able to obtain a jumbo
loan with an even lower credit
score and down payment at
Chase. According to an an-
nouncement from the New-York
City-based bank in August,
Chase, a U.S. consumer and
commercial banking business of
JPMorgan Chase & Co., is sim-
plifying its jumbo loan product
offerings by lowering FICO and
down payment requirements on
loans as much as $3 million.
Single-family homebuyers can
now obtain jumbo loan with a
FICO of 680 or higher and can
put as little as 15 percent down,
the company stated. Under the
previous requirements, single-
family buyers had to have a
minimum FICO of 740 with a 20
percent down payment.
Wall Street Journal reporter
Annamaria Andriotis noted that
followed a similar route taken by
Bank of America Corp., Wells
Fargo & Co., and other banks for
requirements on jumbo mortgages.
Regulatory costs and litigation risks
are also causing some big banks to
shy away from smaller loans.
"In some cases, our customers
have been helped by other banks
that have different guidelines,"
Sean Grzebin, head of retail mort
-
gage lending at J.P. Morgan, told
the Wall Street Journal. "Some of
this is [about] retaining customers
we should have gotten and
we hadn't because of program
restrictions." The bank, run
by Chairman and CEO James
Dimon, said in July 2014 it was
repositioning its mortgage strategy
to focus on higher-end customers.
In April, the Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA) reported that
jumbo loan applications experienced
significant increases, mainly in the
$417,000 to $625,000 range and also
in the greater than $729,000 range.
These results aligned with the MBA
Mortgage Credit Availability Index,
which revealed growth in jumbo
product offerings.
"Generally, the home purchase
market is slowly beginning to
regain some footing as house
-
holds have become confident in
their income expectations and
job prospects," the MBA said.
"Entry level buyers continue to be
impacted by factors such as tight
credit, student loan debt, and
regulatory challenges."
The bank also released its
easy-to-understand guidelines for
primary and second-home loans,
investment properties, and cash-
out finance loans that reflect its
thorough analysis of market and
borrower risk.
"Everyone in the home-buying
process—from consumers to real
estate agents and mortgage bank
-
ers—can more easily understand
how we can help them close on
a loan fast," said Sean Grzebin,
head of retail lending.
"We want to make sure home-
buyers can easily understand the
benefits of financing with Chase,"
said Steve Hemperly, head of
mortgage loan originations.
ORIGINATION
LOCAL EDITION